"The athlete had been stung by a jellyfish and partially blinded by salt water. He had been lost and confused. Physically he was a mess. But still he kept on in this, the Hawaiian Iron Man Triathlon, an event that involved swimming 2.4 miles in perilously stormy seas, then bicycling 112 miles around the island of Oahu, followed by a 26.2-mile marathon run."

So opens an article by Barry McDermott in Sports Illustrated when picturing eventual champion Tom Warren in the second running of the IRONMAN World Championship in 1979 on Oahu, the original venue.

I believe that even Warren, 39 years after his Oahu victory, would agree that race preparation in the hours or days prior to your event—aka the "taper,"—are just as important as the weeks or months of training entered in one’s log book. Famed researcher David Costill has shown that an appropriate period of controlled rest can improve performance from 0.5 – 6 percent. Six percent! Just by carefully programming the final few days before your race.

In the past, the adage of simply reducing your training volume by X percent three weeks before race day and Y percent two weeks before, etcetera, was the norm. Little thought was invested into the athlete's actual fitness or the physical toll of the event. Tapering is a complicated equation that takes into account many variables, including:

-Current athlete fitness by swim, by bike, by run

-Previous tapering experience and results

-Athlete preference (lose a little less fitness in one area as the athlete notes a better feel for the sport)

-Length of the race. Less tapering is required for a shorter event, say a 70.3 where just a few days works for some while others may view that distance as a training effort

-Importance of this race? If this is the one event the athlete points toward all year, say a Kona qualifier, perhaps a little lengthier taper would be recommended

-What has worked well in previous tapers? This is obviously a trial and error process, but one that once realized can be instrumental in future planning repeatedly.

The right taper will help deliver you to the start line feeling fresh.

The experts have a lot to say on the topic. Well-known triathlon coach Joe Friel points out frequently that he’d rather have a client 5 percent over-rested than 5 percent over-trained at the start line. Inigo Mujika, in his classic work Tapering and Peaking for Optimal Performance, says "no generic taper is perfect for everyone." Swim coach Bob Bowman (known world-wide as the force behind Michael Phelps), has written that athletes must "be at their best when their best is needed."

So what are the general guidelines? Mujika would tell us that the aim of the taper should be to minimize accumulated fatigue without compromising adaptations—best achieved by maintaining training intensity, reducing the training volume and slightly reducing the training frequency. The first thing the athlete needs to do is clear their brain of the mentality that they need to keep training. To get this point, double-figure training week hours are the norm, but to sustain earned fitness over the short term requires considerably less time. In short, once you’ve reached the mountain top, it takes surprisingly little to stay there.

Mujika's approach is to have athletes work exceptionally hard prior to the date selected to begin their taper to achieve max fitness (two weeks before race day in this example.) Then he would ask them to gradually reduce training volume to 50 percent or less. Workout frequency remains nearly the same so that the athlete maintains comfort in the water, keeps up our bike handling skills, etc. However, this is not a time to reduce intensity. For example, continue with your speed of 400's on the track, but reduce the number of reps. Always volume first, intensity second.

Remember, athletic bodies are expecting to endure a certain load every week. A taper brings a certain amount of musculoskeletal system confusion, for certain. It's also not uncommon for travel to occur during this period, with the athlete often changing a time zone or several time zones. Thus, a certain amount of stress is expected.

"For many of us endorphin addicts, tapers can feel like drug withdrawal," says Jim Thornton in Swimmer magazine. He adds that feeling crappy during tapers always seems to be a good sign—don't ask me why."

In summary, to achieve your best on race day, remember these five suggestions:

1. Plan your taper specifically for you and for the specific event being raced.

2. Reduce volume first aiming for 50 percent or less by race day.

3. Reduce workout frequency slightly but maintain intensity.

4. Keep written results of how the taper worked/didn’t work and modify next time.

5. Although each of us is used to a life of train, train, train, in the days before an important event, James Kegley, with a 38 minute 2-mile swim on his resume, would admonish us to "rest, rest, rest."

John Post is a six-time IRONMAN World Championship finisher and an IRONMAN Certified Coach.